Twelver Shiism by Andrew J. Newman

Author:Andrew J. Newman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

CHAPTER 6

The Mongol and Ilkhanid periods: the rise and limits of the school of al-Hilla

The century or more following the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols and the killing of the last Abbasid caliph, like the later Buyid period, has been viewed by scholars and the faithful alike mainly via the careers and contributions of a precious few – in this case, Jafar b. al-Hasan al-Hilli (d. 1277), known later as al-Muhaqqiq (the researcher), and his nephew al-Hasan b. Yusuf al-Hilli (d. 1325), later called al-Allama (the most learned).1

As in 1055, so the 1258 fall of Baghdad resulted in widespread destruction of the community’s resources. Twelver scholars did win recognition by the Mongol and Ilkhanid political establishment, as they did with that of the Saljuks. But actual Twelver influence was quite probably more limited than later Twelver accounts suggest.

The larger community remained fragmented and scattered across the region, the availability of key, early primary sources remained problematic and the onset of a marked decline in scholarly activity across the region, but especially in Iran, that would last until the fifteenth century is particularly notable.

Missing is the post-1258 equivalent of al-Qazwini’s Kitab al-Naqd, with its insights into the situations of the non-elite believers – the majority in any age – across parts of the region at least. Indeed, what remains for later generations, admittedly and once again, are the written texts of these several elites. Read carefully, however, these, as earlier texts, reveal a degree of equivocation on a variety of issues that attests to disquiet within the community as to the specific interpretations of their authors, these authors’ efforts to assert their authority over the community more generally and, also as prior to 1258, the continuation of Twelver pluralism in matters of doctrine and, especially, practice.

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